


Headache

by HopeCoppice



Series: Same Earth [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Myriad, Same Earth AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6614626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeCoppice/pseuds/HopeCoppice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SPOILERS for series 1 finale.</p><p>Barry rushes to National City as soon as he hears it's safe. He hears wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Headache

**Author's Note:**

> Angsty one, sorry!
> 
> I wasn't expecting so many people to like the previous story for this pairing, so I hope you like this one too.

The moment National City is declared safe, Barry is straight there. It takes him no time at all to reach CatCo’s office building, and for once he doesn’t have to sweet-talk his way past security. Everybody’s just milling about, looking confused and stunned, so Barry joins the throng and picks his way up by the stairs - it’s impossible to get near the elevator, even if he could bear the thought of standing still rather than moving, however slowly, to reach his boyfriend.

  


When he gets to the top office, he finds Winn standing with James Olsen, gazing sadly at a desk that seems like any other.

“Hey. You alright?” It seems painfully inadequate to ask that after his boyfriend has had his mind hijacked, but he has no other words.

“I’m fine. It’s Kelly… Supergirl couldn’t catch all of us.” Winn reaches blindly for his hand as the tears well up, and Barry takes it. James disappears into Cat’s office and comes back with a vase of flowers.

“Until we can get some more, Cat can live without these.” He places the flowers on Kelly’s desk, and Winn nods.

“Do you have any photos of her?”

“I guess I might, I can go look.” James ambles off to look, and Winn just… stands there, for a moment.

“Are you sure you’re OK? Look, let’s get some fresh air.” Winn nods, and Barry takes his arm.

  


Winn isn’t the only person in the office who looks like he could use some air, but for some reason nobody seems to have thought of standing on the balcony. He steers Winn over to it and is surprised when his boyfriend stops suddenly, pressing himself back against the wall of the building. Fresh air doesn’t seem to be helping.

“Winn, what’s wrong?” He follows his boyfriend’s gaze; he’s staring, aghast, at the low barrier around the balcony. Barry’s heart drops into his stomach. He can feel it digesting, he’s sure of it. “Winn, what happened to you? What do you mean, she couldn’t catch all of you?”

“When…” Winn takes a deep, shuddering breath that makes Barry’s lungs ache in sympathy. “When we were under Myriad’s control, it… Non, he made me- and James, and K… Kelly- he made us jump. From three different windows, and… and Kara couldn’t catch us all. She didn’t get to Kelly in time… I knew what was happening, you know.” Another breath. “I could see, hear,  _ feel  _ everything… I must have fallen ten floors at least. I thought- I knew she’d save us, but- I thought I was going to die, Barry.” He stands there, looking lost and alone, until Barry pulls him into his arms.

“You didn’t die. You’re right here with me, and this Myriad thing is gone. I’ve got you.” He can hardly believe what he’s hearing, let alone process it.

“She didn’t deserve to- I, I was just talking to her this morning, the printer jammed and I fixed it and she said thank you…”

“I know. I know. Come on, let’s go back inside.”

  


They’re sitting quietly together at Winn’s desk, heads close together as people bustle around, when Cat Grant re-enters the building.

“People, we have a media empire to maintain. I know today’s events have been unsettling, to say the least, but we all have a job to do and it has never been so important. I appreciate that many of you are only here to visit loved ones, and I understand; I myself intend to speak to my son on the phone for the rest of the afternoon. All I ask is that you do not stop CatCo employees from doing what they do best. Thank you.”

  


Barry perches on the edge of the desk for hours, that afternoon, just resting a hand on Winn’s shoulder and touching his hair in reassurance every so often. He sits there as Kara arrives with a nod of greeting and a relieved smile, and as Cat Grant starts chatting to her speakerphone as she works. He’s grateful to Cat for not throwing him - or any of the other people who clearly don’t work here - out of the office. It’s clear that Winn’s comforted by his presence, and Barry’s glad to have him there, right there where he can see and touch him. He nearly lost him today, without ever knowing how much danger he was in. Barry’s fallen off buildings before, when he was still learning to run up them, and it was never pleasant; no wonder Winn’s pale and clammy. And Barry… well, he hasn’t known Winn so very long, but he can’t imagine his life without him now. Even the thought of it gives him a headache.

  


He should probably realise that Kara’s saying goodbye when she comes to tell Winn how much his friendship means to her, and then turns to Barry.

“Barry, I know we haven’t known each other long, but I know you’re a true hero, and you’ll always protect your city - and mine. And you’ve also been so, so good for my best friend. Thank you.”

“I can honestly say it’s my pleasure,” he assures her, then turns his attention back to Winn, barely noticing as she talks to Jimmy and Cat and makes her way around the office before disappearing completely. 

  


Winn is rubbing his temples absent-mindedly.

“Headache?”

“Yeah.” Winn grimaces. “Guess my brain hit the top of my skull when I fell, or something.”

Barry presses a kiss to his cheek, shrugging when he gets a questioning look.

“Ms Grant is lucky you’re working at all, she’ll just have to put up with a bit of public affection.” He glances around at the rest of the room. “It’s not like we’re the worst offenders; that girl’s sitting on her boyfriend’s lap while he works.”

“Yeah, but…” Winn relents. “At least make it a proper kiss, yeah?”

  


It’s not until later that they realise  _ everybody  _ has a headache. Everyone in the whole office and, judging by the crowd shots they flick through on the monitors, everyone in National City.

“You should go for help,” Winn tells him, and after five solid minutes of being pestered - because after all, it’s National City that’s in pain, and Barry should be here - he agrees to at least go out and see what he can find out about this new phenomenon. It has to be something to do with the mind control, he’s sure of it. But as he makes to rush off - people never notice if he just disappears, especially since hardly anyone here even knows him by sight - searing pain shoots through his head. He feels nausea rise in his stomach and doubles over, retching. He counts it as a mercy that he doesn’t actually vomit on Cat Grant’s floor; he’d probably never finish paying for that.

“Winn.” He gasps for breath as he straightens up at last. “I can’t run. I’m stuck here, same as you. There’s nothing I can do.”

* * *

They hope, at first, that the headaches will pass, but they just get worse. Kara’s absence seems somewhat ominous, now. There’s clearly something bad going on, and Barry hates that he can’t do anything to help.

“Welcome to the sidekick squad,” Winn grits out, drinking his fourth cup of water in an hour. Then he sighs. “Sorry. But it’s not your fault. There’s nothing you can do right now, we just have to trust Kara.”

“I just… wish I could help her. But I can hardly move.”

“Is it bad that I’m kinda glad?” Work has been abandoned, now, and Winn squeezes Barry’s hand. “I mean… if this gets any worse, I’d rather we were together. What if you’d got halfway out of town before it had hit you?”

“...Yeah. Yeah, I’d rather be here.”

  


It’s not until later, when everyone’s on the floor and people are screaming, that Winn begins to look truly scared. Barry knows he’s wondering if this is too much, even for Kara. If that’s why she’d been saying goodbye. He’s afraid his friend isn’t coming back, and he’s afraid they’re all about to die. They sit together behind a pair of desks, backs pressed up against the wood, trying to keep eye contact from across the small aisle between them. Being too close to Winn’s computer is just painful, so Barry’s had to move to another desk for both of their sakes. Winn can’t bear to get close enough to turn his machine off.

  


Barry looks at Winn, and wonders if this is the last time he’ll ever see his face, if his is the last face he’ll ever see. It’s contorted into a grimace of agony, and he’s trying to breathe as evenly as he can but can’t help gasping with the pain. It’s still one of the best faces Barry could be seeing right now, and he’s sure he looks just as pained. Winn reaches out for his hand, and Barry reaches back, but he can’t quite stretch far enough… Winn must nearly dislocate his shoulder to do it, but he closes the gap and their fingers touch- which is when the headache goes away, all of a sudden, like magic. 

  


For a moment, it’s as if their love has triumphed over evil, like in a cheesy Lifetime movie… and then everyone else is taking deep breaths and crying with relief, and they realise it’s probably more to do with the DEO and Supergirl. Barry pulls Winn into his arms and kisses him like he’s never going to let go. Maybe he never will. He hasn’t decided yet. Winn doesn’t seem to have any objections. Even Cat Grant doesn’t seem to mind that nobody’s getting back to work yet; in fact, she’s clinging to her phone like it’s a lifeline and it looks, through the glass wall of her office, as if she’s telling her son just how much she loves him and misses him.

  


Kara isn’t back yet. She’s not back by the time Cat comes out to get her to call for a driver - James does it, in the end, because apparently he’s Cat’s new second choice of assistant - and she’s not back when the news station from a couple of cities over starts broadcasting shots of a ship being pushed into space, taken from a long-distance camera in a helicopter. The tiny figure underneath it is Supergirl. And the ship doesn’t stop, it just keeps going into the sky until it’s out of sight. The footage is from just before the headaches stopped, by Barry’s reckoning - just over an hour ago.

“She can’t have taken it all the way into space. She couldn’t. She’d die, she needs to breathe… She wouldn’t do that.” Winn doesn’t believe his own words, and all Barry can do is hold him tight and try to reassure him.

“She’ll be OK. She’ll come back.”

  


Cat leaves the office, on her way to meet her son from what Barry can tell. On the way out, she tells everyone to go home if they like; there’s no point in trying to pretend this is just another day. A few people stay put, all the same. Barry calls his friends back in Central City to let them know he’s OK, but barring a huge emergency he won’t be home that night. He’s already decided that whatever happens, he’s staying to support Winn.

  


Winn calls Kara’s phone what feels like a thousand times, and so does James, but nobody picks up. Then, just as Barry begins to lose feeling in his hand from where Winn is squeezing it so tightly, his call is answered. He waves James over as Winn starts to talk.

“Kara? Where-”

_ “Not Kara.” _ The voice is vaguely familiar.  _ “This is Lucy. Don’t worry, Supergirl is safe.” _ All the tension seems to leave Winn in a rush of breath, and James drops his head into his hands as if all the fight has gone out of him. Barry, too, is relieved.

“Then why isn’t she answering her phone?” That’s James, and there’s a pause on the other end of the line.

_ “Hi, James. She’s in the sunbed, recovering. She flew right out into space to save the world.” _

“Then how- are you sure she’s-?” Winn is incoherent; Lucy is calm.

_ “She’s not the only badass in the family, I’m told. She was rescued. She’ll probably be out for a while but her vitals are stable. I can ask her to call you when she wakes up, if you like. Her cousin’s out, too.” _

“Superman’s here? In National City? Can I meet him?”

_ “He’s out cold, and as soon as he’s not I’m pretty sure he’s got things to do in Metropolis. Specifically, my sister is going to kill him, so he can’t be late for that. Sorry, Winn. But also, he’s classified and he’s really not that interesting. Trust me, you’re not missing much.” _

Winn accepts that with a glance at Barry.

“I guess I have plenty of superheroes to keep me going. Thanks for letting us know, Lucy.”

_ “You’re welcome. Enjoy not being dead.” _

  


Later, in Winn’s apartment, Barry and Winn curl up on the sofa to play video games for the night. Neither of them can really concentrate on the racing game, though, and it’s not long before they fall asleep right there on the sofa. Barry wakes to small vibrations coming from Winn’s pocket, and they both sit up while he answers the call.

“Hello? Oh, thank god, Kara, you had us really worried.” Barry relaxes, settles his head back on Winn’s shoulder, and lets the words wash over him as Winn scolds Kara for saying goodbye and being all heroic and risking her life. By the time he hangs up, he’s laughing, and he’s been invited over for a ‘the world didn’t end’ party the following night. Barry’s invited too, but he has to get back to Central before something else goes wrong. He’s got duties, and he’s got to explain his absence from work, too. In the meantime, though, he has a whole night to spend with Winn and he intends to make the most of it.

  


The next evening, as he sits with his friends at STAR labs discussing the best approach to take with yet another new villain who seems to have appeared out of nowhere, Winn sends him a photo of his friends in National City, raising a glass at Kara’s apartment and grinning like idiots. Kara’s got a promotion, apparently, but mostly they’re all just glad to be alive. He sends back a little champagne-glass emote and then tucks his phone away. It’s his turn to be a hero.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow my fic blog on Tumblr - my URL is coppicefics. Come and hang out!


End file.
